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Re: [OM] OT Global warming

Subject: Re: [OM] OT Global warming
From: Dirk Wright <wright@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 09:06:29 -0500
Cc: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> The World Trade Organization espouses the free
>cross-border exchange of goods but not labor. And unfortunately this
>might shift money out of the pockets of the friends of the newly
>selected administration so i don't see a remedy any time soon. Sorry to
>bother you with US specific issues but I know that Canada faces the same
>problems (since that's the only news I get) and in Europe the problem is
>even more complex with the euro and all so i guess we're all on this
>boat together.

On the one hand, I say thank God for the Chinese, since they make it possible 
for me to but decent footwear at Target for 20$, or to buy nice stained glass 
light fixtures for my new house for only 150$ each. On the other hand, I have 
a bit of "liberal guilt" over the probable exploitation of the laborers and 
environment in China. I think China has some of the worst pollution on the 
planet. Heck, there was a town there that the spooks (CIA, et al) didn't even 
know existed because the smog was so bad that even thier satellites couldn't 
see it. So, heck if I know what to do about it. If those shoes and those 
lamps were made here in the 'states, I think they would be just beyond my 
budget. 

I saw a movie the other day, it's called "Someone to Love", by that whacky 
director, can't remember his name. Anyway, it has the last footage of Orsen 
Welles before he died. The subject was basically the women's liberation 
movement, and Orsen commented that this country was attempting something that 
has never been done before, which is to create a society without slaves. For 
all of recorded history, slaves of some kind have supported each 
civilization. With the emancipation of women from traditional roles, he 
argued, we were getting rid of the last of our slaves. I'm wondering, though, 
if we have merely exported our slave workforce to China, India, Mexico, et 
al. 

I'll tell you what amazes me. I'm standing at the bus stop, and I look down 
at the cast iron manhole cover, and it says "made in India". What the heck? 
Is it really that much cheaper to make cast iron manhole covers to US 
specifications in India, then ship those heavy mothers half way around the 
world to some port, then load them on trucks and railcars to be ground 
transported to a place of business? 
-- 
Be Seeing You.
Dirk Wright


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